Over the last two decades, Pixar Animation Studios has been known for its groundbreaking advances in computer animation, as well as its filmmakers’ ability to create striking characters and worlds with which people instantly fall in love.
This week, its newest film, Coco, breaks newer and similarly important ground, at least for itself if not the entire industry: Pixar is telling a story about non-white characters. Coco is not only set in Mexico, but is heavily steeped in the country’s cultural traditions, centering its story about Dia de los Muertos.An effort to depict non-white characters shouldn’t seem so important in 2017, but Pixar has largely avoided casting non-White actors or creating non-white characters since the original Toy Story in 1995. This issue is more present now, as John Lasseter has taken a leave of absence amid claims of misconduct, and actress/writer Rashida Jones
Coco could have been akin to Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Pocahontas from the summer of 1995, a film meant as much as an apologia for past creative sins as it was designed…
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